Maybe I'm beating a dead horse (I am on a hockey forum in the middle of July though, so....), but I was reading over the first few pages of this thread -- which date back to the spring -- and reviewing all the cries for vengeance upon Brown, Doughty and whoever else. Of course, at the time, I was screaming for a squadron of pirate ninjas to take to the ice to strike down the Kings as well, but in the cold light of day one thing is clear -- that's all far too reactive. This team needs to be proactive. The Canucks don't need to toughen up so they can decide to play tough when one of the Sedins gets smoked or the goalie gets run. They need to toughen up and play tough all the time so that instances of star players being victimized decreases.

Don't be so damn scared to take a penalty! Set the tone in October and keep it up all year. If someone wants to take a dirty shot at -- Keith's elbow for instance -- one of the Canucks' players, they should pay dearly -- in October, January, March. Knocking Keith's teeth out for elbowing your star player is a good penalty, it's a worthy penalty. It's a penalty you should not be afraid to take and one your team should happily kill. You don't start being tough in April or May when there isn't a team out there that fears you. I said this elsewhehere, but I'll say it again - Building a team to counter toughness with powerplay goals will NOT succeed in the playoffs. NHL officiating is laughable at best and resembles a roulette wheel in the playoffs. If you're counting on the officials for your teams' success, you will fail.

Callicles wrote:Maybe I'm beating a dead horse (I am on a hockey forum in the middle of July though, so....), but I was reading over the first few pages of this thread -- which date back to the spring -- and reviewing all the cries for vengeance upon Brown, Doughty and whoever else. Of course, at the time, I was screaming for a squadron of pirate ninjas to take to the ice to strike down the Kings as well, but in the cold light of day one thing is clear -- that's all far too reactive. This team needs to be proactive. The Canucks don't need to toughen up so they can decide to play tough when one of the Sedins gets smoked or the goalie gets run. They need to toughen up and play tough all the time so that instances of star players being victimized decreases.

Don't be so damn scared to take a penalty! Set the tone in October and keep it up all year. If someone wants to take a dirty shot at -- Keith's elbow for instance -- one of the Canucks' players, they should pay dearly -- in October, January, March. Knocking Keith's teeth out for elbowing your star player is a good penalty, it's a worthy penalty. It's a penalty you should not be afraid to take and one your team should happily kill. You don't start being tough in April or May when there isn't a team out there that fears you. I said this elsewhehere, but I'll say it again - Building a team to counter toughness with powerplay goals will NOT succeed in the playoffs. NHL officiating is laughable at best and resembles a roulette wheel in the playoffs. If you're counting on the officials for your teams' success, you will fail.

Yeah totally agree. I have never seen the point of "not engaging after the play" if the opposition are taking liberties on your players during the regular season. It basically shows the rest of the league that it's open season on your top players. So what if a 5 minute major for beating the piss out of Keith results in a "L" on March 1 (or whenever it was). The Canucks would probably feel better about it and any opposition would know that the Canucks will not tolerate that kind of abuse. Brown et al from the Kings may not have been as eager to be physical in round 1 if the Canucks had set precedent here. Instead, you could see that with every physical engagement, no matter how small, he and the other Kings grew in confidence.

Tanti09 wrote:Yeah totally agree. I have never seen the point of "not engaging after the play" if the opposition are taking liberties on your players during the regular season. It basically shows the rest of the league that it's open season on your top players. So what if a 5 minute major for beating the piss out of Keith results in a "L" on March 1 (or whenever it was). The Canucks would probably feel better about it and any opposition would know that the Canucks will not tolerate that kind of abuse. Brown et al from the Kings may not have been as eager to be physical in round 1 if the Canucks had set precedent here. Instead, you could see that with every physical engagement, no matter how small, he and the other Kings grew in confidence.

Completely agree I think AV has them on a short leash. Who cares in a mid season game, that's the very time you establish your teams identity

Tanti09 wrote:Yeah totally agree. I have never seen the point of "not engaging after the play" if the opposition are taking liberties on your players during the regular season. It basically shows the rest of the league that it's open season on your top players. So what if a 5 minute major for beating the piss out of Keith results in a "L" on March 1 (or whenever it was). The Canucks would probably feel better about it and any opposition would know that the Canucks will not tolerate that kind of abuse. Brown et al from the Kings may not have been as eager to be physical in round 1 if the Canucks had set precedent here. Instead, you could see that with every physical engagement, no matter how small, he and the other Kings grew in confidence.

Completely agree I think AV has them on a short leash. Who cares in a mid season game, that's the very time you establish your teams identity

AV has certain guys on a short leash. If certain players take one penalty, they are in the doghouse. However, other players can take dumb penalty after dumb penalty and still get minutes. With AV it's not so much about having a certain standard that is too tight, it's having an inconsistent standard that causes players to be tenative (or if you're on the favourites list, to play with no regard).